The Symbolic Meaning of the Pentagram

Types Of Pentagram

The Pentagram is a symbol of a star encased in a circle. Always with 5 points (one pointing upward), each has its own meaning. The upward point of the star is representative of the spirit. The other four points all represent an element; earth, air, fire, and water. All these things contibutite to life and are a part of each of us. The 5 pointed star represent human body and the number 5 is symbolic to human being. Human have five fingers/toes on each limb extremity. Human commonly note five senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Human perceive five stages or initiations in our lives - eg. birth, adolescence, coitus, parenthood and death. The number 5 is associated with Mars. It signifies severity, conflict and harmony through conflict. In Christianity, five were the wounds of Christ on the cross. There are five pillars of the Muslim faith and five daily times of prayer.

The number 5 is prime. The simplest star - the pentagram - requires five lines to draw and it is unicursal; it is a continuous loop

Protection against evil

The pentagram has long been believed to be a potent protection against evil, a symbol of conflict that shields the wearer and the home. The pentagram has five spiked wards and a womb shaped defensive, protective pentagon at the centre.

Five Elements

The five elements contains four of matter (earth, air, fire and water) and the quintessential - spirit. These may be arrayed around the pentagrams points. The word quintessential derives from this fifth element - the spirit. Tracing a path around the pentagram, the elements are placed in order of density - spirit (or aether). fire, air, water, earth. Earth and fire are basal, fixed; air and water are free, flowing.

The single point upwards signifies the spirit ruling matter (mind ruling limbs); is a symbol of rightness. With two points up and one (spirit) downwards, subservient, the emphasis is on the carnal nature of Man.

The pentagram as a Christian symbol

At the medieval times, the five points of the pentagram represented the five wounds of Christ on the Cross. It was a symbol of Christ the Saviour. This is in stark contrast to today where the pentagram is criticized by modern Fundamentalist Christians, as being a symbol of evil.The church eventually chose the cross as a more significant symbol for Christianity, and the use of the pentagram as a Christian symbol gradually ceased.

Inverted Pentagram

The pentagram may be inverted with one point down. The implication is of spirit subservient to matter, of man subservient to his carnal desires. The inverted pentagram has come to be seen by many pagans as representing the dark side and it is abhorred as an evil symbol. Fundamental christians, indeed, see any form of pentagram as such. However, these are recent developments and the inverted pentagram is the symbol of Gardnerian second degree initiation, representing the need of the witch to learn to face the darkness within so that it may not later rise up to take control. The center of a pentagram implies a sixth formative element - love/will which controls from within, ruling matter and spirit by Will and the controlled magical direction of sexual energies. This is another lesson of initiation.

When was the pentagram used as a satanic symbol?

However, in simpler terms, the truth is that the Church chose to demonize the pentagram (and the pentacle) because it was used in rituals and in the worship of the Old Gods. To the Church, anything that threatened their power and control over the masses was Satanic. It's similar, in fact, to the way that one of the principal Old Gods, Cernunos, became associated with the biblical Satan, although there's no scriptural basis for the comparison.

Satan is a pretty much purely Christian concept (Judaism has the Opposer, but the relationship between the two is tenuous at best). The Pentagram is far more ancient than Christianity. Sumerians and Babylonians, Indo-Europeans used the symbol for a long time without it relating in any way to the Christian "anti-God." In point of fact, it's only after the church demonizes the symbol that those who are opposed to the church (and are thus, according to the church, Satanists) begin using the symbol.Satanism is a construct of Christianity. The pentacle predates both, and has nothing, really, to do with either.

Baphomet
Unique to Satanism. A demonic deity and symbolic of Satan. Can be seen as jewelryIt is also now being used by the masons. It can be seen on their buildings and the emblems the put on their vehicles to identify each other.